this week on "our world with black enterprise" -- >> it's a cycle going on. that's where the accountability comes in. they're not doing this on their money. they're doing it on our money. you're not going to call me the "n" word and i'm going to pay for it. >> there's an element of the choices that we do make and the money we do spend ourselves that we've got to take responsibility for. >> enough is enough. our special town hall meeting is next. captions made possible by the u.s. department of education and central city productions, inc.

our world held a town hall meeting at the 13th annual black enterprise entrepreneur's meeting in north carolina. multi media journalists and cnn tv 1 contributor rolan martin. social commentator for msnbc, nancy giles; president of the -- al sharpton, ceo of bring the noise east link, chuck dee and executive director of bet.com kim osario. earl graves opened the evening challenging the audience. he implored people to be accountable for their actions and urged a change in the ills that have gripped black america for decades. >> enough is enough. i'm speaking, of course, of the increasingly pervasive ghetto culture that's overtaken our youth, our language, our traditions and our values.

this discussion tonight isn't going to be about the role of art in society or free speech, or whether the "n" word is acceptable or what hip-hop can teach us. that ship has sailed. the damage has been done. the issue before us is what are we going to do about it. so let's start talking about solutions. enough is enough. thank you. [ applause ] . . if i might, i have a question for the ud yens. if the you'll indulge me and please follow along, how many of you by a show of hands feel like you've seen enough of what mr. graves has talked about? show your hands, please. how many of you believe enough is enough? if, in fact, you do, stand on your feet for me one time. give some love to what he just said please. [ applause ]

now, here is the crucial question, and i will not put you on the spot because you're going to lie to me anymore. how many of you are doing enough to solve the problem? we are going to talk about the idea that much of what mr. graves talked about prior to this has been talked about for 20-plus years. and we have seen very little improvement, and in some areas, we have seen regression. when getting ready for this program, i was listening to one of my favorite artists, gill scott herrin who many of you know and for a very, very long time has told the complete truth about our situation. in 1993 he had a cd which had a song called "message to the messenger". let me put up some of the hear rix. you'll take a look on the screen and see what i mean. remember, this is 1993. i'm saying -- speaking to young

people, the rap pers, protect your community and spread the respect around. tell brothers and sisters they've got to calm that bs down. we're terrorizetion our old folks, we brought fear into our homes and they ain't going to hang out with the senior citizens. just tell them, damn it, leave the old folks alone. also in this song, but i think you young folks need to know that things don't go both way z. you can't talk respect on every other song or just every other day. what i'm speaking on now is the raps about women folk, one song she's your african queen, on the next one she's a joke. 1993. fast forward 2008, same situations. reverend sharpton, i turn to you for the question. how have we allowed what we have seen across the board to fesster and in some areas as i've said, regress 20 years later?

>> i think, first of all, the appropriate place to have this discussion is black enterprise. and i tell you why. i think that we are not honestly dealing with the fact that once in the media world we went to consolidation, where only three or four entities own what we see and hear, and in the music industry, there are three or four record companies. we stopped having the ability to define ourselves. and they would hire young people, bribe them into making records or videos or lyrics that would denigrate their community because we no longer had the power. when we had the power -- when you had 30 record companies, 15 of them independent, then people could make records that would up lift us. it is not in the corporate interest of the music world or

the media world to do anything but have some kind of cynical view of us. so what we have now allowed them to show as tough, are not but some jangalling, rapping, uncle toms. we don't control our image no more. in the early '70s when black enterprise started or essence started and james brown had three radio stations, steve vo wonder had one, we defined ourselves. black and proud didn't come out of the white music industry. [ applause ] >> roland martin if that's the case, and we get applause as we at every town hall meeting, it seems to me that the fervor we feel and hear is often left in here and the demand against those record companies, when reverend sharpton is leading a march, where we see hundreds rather than thousands, how do we change that dynamic? >> we have to establish

accountability. that's the one word that we are actually afraid to use and act on. on my radio show on wvln i have all these big movements, meetings and covenant meetings and down halls, all these different events. what i say is you can come on my show to promote it. i'll have you back on to see what we've accomplished. to sit here and complain all day is a complete waste of time. >> nancy giles, since we're here in the black enterprise settings, often corporations will assume that stockholders won't open that proxy note and do the vote. so if you don't as a community open that note and vote and deal with proxy and who is being elected and what is the movement of that, then shame on you. >> absolutely. you're not taking responsibility. i write essays for cbs.

so i don't know about the rest of you, but when i was watching the oscars a couple of years ago and the best song went to the song "it's hard out here for a pimp," i had a problem with that, okay? i had a problem with that. i wrote about it. i wrote this essay just talking about where i stand and, yes, in the context of the movie the song was very moving, but it was really hard to sit and watch the oscars and watch these guys with the pants falling down and the girls -- i had a hard time with it. i have to tell you, i wanted to express it and try to mention to people where is our history, where is our pride? i'm watching the oscars and wondering about sidney portier and people that really did work that was something to be proud of. the fact of the matter is, i got a lot of letters, and the letters i got, many of them called me an uncle tom, said i wasn't hip, this was the kind of

pride -- there may be a generational -- >> take me to what nancy brings us to. talk to me about the inability again for us to, including middle class black folk who should know better, to get us to understand that we have to now get up. >> you've got to identify who. we don't identify the who. i remember when they rolled on carl rove's house, politicians on the other side, and they rolled to his crib in virginia and protested based on something that he wrote up against a certain demographic of people. and they was in front of his crib with school buses and the whole nine. we have to identify who sits at these boards, where they live, what's their social security number. because one of the problems is, is that when you're black and you make it, they identify you as an individual. white, you just fit with a big blanket. you better identify people before you call them an enemy.

i'm about focusing on that. >> we had a hip-hop special and paula zahn had a special on cnn. at the top of the show, chuck was on. we were going through the whole hour. finally i said, hold up. i love him to death. i don't want to hear from chuck or germane due pre or russell simmons. i want to hear from the head of warner. i want to hear from the head of universal, down the whole line. in every debate about music, they are never seen. from the tobacco movie, "the insider," have them sitting there so you see who it is. you will see none of the ceos are are black. >> when we return -- we've got the new york city council to call these record companies down and said if you're going to keep doing this, you cannot get tax rebates in the city. reare not going to pay to be insulted. it's time to get schooled on mcdonald's new angus third-pounders.

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though the ills of gangster rap are easily pointed out because of the visuals, and it's an easy point, there is middle

class degradation, middle class apathy, board room apathy by a lot of black folk who got some good jobs, who aren't doing what they need to do. i want to make sure we don't miss this. kim, let me do this, i am not going to do what would be so easy because you've got bet.com after your name. i think we all have heard what bob johnson continues to say even though bob has divested his holdings in black entertainment television. we've heard from reggie hud lum, from debra lee, whether you like it or not. my question to you is, as someone who is intimately involved in bet.com, and when you take a look at the interest of young black america based on where they go on your website, what does that tell you, frankly? >> you know what? i want to address something really quickly. i think it's very easy for us to say we want to find this person, get the ceo of this corporation, we want to hold people

accountable. the first duty that i have as a woman and as a mother is to be accountable for myself and my children. and i think that is the most important thing that we need to look at here. i raise my children every day, and i'm involved in their lives as well as the lives of the community that they're growing up in. i make an effort to go out to schools, talk to schools, and not just talk and wave my hand and say hi, but to further that relationship by giving out my personal phone number and e-mail address, because i believe in continuing the dialogue with that community. and i need to see mom of a bridge between the generations here. i think it's very easy to attack hip-hop and the people at the corporations, but what are we really doing when we're attacking them? where's the action? i know what i do on a daily basis. >> you're making them scared. >> when you actually make somebody personally accountable to something and make them answer to the so-called public -- a lot of people say they're good with the public. >> what if they don't care? what if they don't care?

then what do you do? >> one at a time, folks. >> it goes back to roll land's point, when we deal with the decency initiative in terms of accountability, we got the new york city council to call these record companies down and said, if you're going to keep doing this, you cannot get tax rebates in the city. we are not going to pay to be insulted. they don't have to care. the fact that we care -- they're not doing this on their money. they're doing it on our money. so you're not going to call me the "n" word, and i'm going to pay for it. [ applause ] >> can you tell me based on your research what you think bet.com shows in terms of the interest of young people? >> let me explain something to you. bet.com serves the bet audience. >> which is a very young audience. >> right. and more than that. i think the demo extends past just the viewership.

>> what is the demo? >> i don't speak to the network and that sort of thing. i'm the executive of bet.com. >> it's 12-plus. that's why i'm trying to say, i'm not putting you in a position -- >> yes, you are. i can't be if spokesperson for that. you got the wrong person. >> hold on, hold on. >> trying to protect you as well. >> you don't have to protect me. i can protect myself. >> you don't have to do this. all i'm saying -- hang on, hang on. this is what the issue is. >> young interest. >> what happens here is, and this is the truth because i've dealt with many people at bet, there is a defense mechanism -- there is, kim. >> i don't have a defense mechanism. go ahead. >> do you or do you not know based on what you've seen, because i know you all have research, what you've seen of young black america is, what their interest is based on what they go to on bet.com. >> do i see what their interest is, yes. >> what would that be?

>> they have an interest in the artists that they're watching on television. >> is it not just what happened between kim and me the issue of black america to a great degree, our inability to deal with our realities without feeling either on my part, kim, or your part, defensive about where we see -- where we stand, whether it's middle class black america versus lower class black america, whether it's obama versus jeremiah write, where it's still light versus dark. isn't that part of our inability to move forward, nancy? >> i'm drinking in what you were saying. >> she was watch iing the fight. >> very entertaining. there's a lot at play. i'm thinking of the overall thing about what to do to move forward. i'm a little fixed still on -- there is an accountability issue

here that i feel like we're missing. there's an element of the choices that we do make and the money that we do spend ourselves that we've got to take responsibility for. >> when we return -- >> we know elements from our family might not go to school, might not go to college, but we distance ourselves and do not lead them and navigate through the storm, we're going to have side effects. that's w introducing the all new chevy equinox. with an epa estimated 32 miles per gallon. and up to 600 miles between fill ups. it's the most fuel efficient crossover on the highway. better than honda cr-v, toyota rav4 and even the ford escape hybrid. the all new chevy equinox.

female announcer: from jennifer, while supplies last, this luxurious microfiber sofa and chair, just $399. our most dramatic offer ever: both pieces, $399, from jennifer. back to the whole idea of, again, accountability, responsibility. chuck, you said you felt there were some things that were being lost over my argument. my argument is that seems to be the issue all of the time. and we can't get past the first core of the apple. you tell me what you believe has been glossed over. >> there's a reason where 1991 some young kid in ghana is saying, what's up, i love hip-hop, i'm going to be a doctor, i'm an engineer, as opposed to 2007 saying, yeah,

what's up, my nigger. it comes from somewhere. >> what's up with us, chuck? what's up with us? >> there's a disconnect. >> what do we do to connect then? >> we've individualized ourselves to i, and we can't take care of we. we know elements of our family might not go to school, might not go to college, we distance ourselves and don't lead them and navigate through the storm. we'll have side effects. that's what we're having right now. they say take race out of the race. it's called a race, number one. then they look at, you know, talk about all the heat that barack obama -- sometimes we've got to say the politically incorrect thing, i don't, chuck, what are you voting for? i'm voting for barack obama for all the wright, and spell it with a w, and the wrong reasons. i know the pressure will be deep and all our hard hats in america

will have our hard hats on day two if he gets up in there. all the wrong reasons, because he's black, yes. >> that's not a wrong reason. that's icing on the cake. >> since the first election, not only has there been a white male that has won, a white male that has lost. i want to see some change. you know what -- >> one white male that lost and won

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. join us next week as we continue our conversation with part two of enough is enough. until then, logon to our website at blackenterprise.com and give us your comments about the show. as always, thanks for making our world your world. for my arthritis, i use new capzasin quick relief gel. (announcer) starts working on contact and at the nerve level. to block pain for hours. new capzasin, takes the pain out of arthritis.